Teachers stepping up when school violence erupts

Jan. 15, 2014
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Thirteen year old Kimberly Macias cries as she sees schoolmates at a vigil for the victims of Tuesday's school shoooting in Roswell, N.M. A 12-year-old boy drew a shotgun from a band-instrument case and shot and wounded two classmates at Berrendo Middle School Tuesday morning before a teacher talked him into dropping the weapon and he was arrested, officials and witnesses said. / Roberto Rosales, The Albuquerque Journal via AP

by Greg Toppo, USATODAY

by Greg Toppo, USATODAY

The New Mexico teacher who stepped in front of a shotgun-wielding 12-year-old Tuesday and talked him out of shooting any more classmates is the latest in a long line of educators who have intervened in school shootings, likely saving countless students' lives, experts say

From the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado in 1999 to the shootings in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, educators, most of them unarmed, have almost always been the first line of defense against school shooters.

An 11-year-old boy shot in the face and neck Tuesday at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell, N.M., remained in critical condition Wednesday, according to officials at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas. A 13-year-old girl, Kendal Sanders, was listed as being in satisfactory condition with a gunshot wound to the arm. The family of the injured boy has asked that his name not be released while he recovers.

The suspect was transferred to an Albuquerque psychiatric hospital after a hearing Tuesday, according to attorney Robert Gorence, who is representing his family. The shooter dropped the weapon, police said, after social studies teacher John Masterson stepped in front of him and persuaded him to stop.

"It was a very brave thing the teacher did yesterday," Chaves County, N.M., Sheriff Rob Coon said. "He talked that kid into putting the gun down where that kid could have very easily put a shotgun blast in his chest. There's always heroes come out in something like that, and that guy was."

The shooter warned some students away just before the attack, New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas said, adding that the attack was planned in advance.

For nearly 20 years, teachers and other school staff members have been called on to stop the violence. In October 1997, when 16-year-old Luke Woodham walked into Pearl High School in Pearl, Miss., armed with a hunting rifle and fatally shot two students, the school's assistant principal, Joel Myrick, chased him down and held him until police arrived. In that case, Myrick, an Army reservist, was armed with a .45-caliber pistol from his truck, but in most cases, teachers intervene unarmed.

"As we've seen time and again, from the Newtown and Roswell shootings to the Moore, Okla., tornado (last year), teachers' first instincts are to embrace and protect their students," American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said.

Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, which represents specially trained school-based police, said educators have stepped in on several occasions.

In addition to this week's Roswell incident, he noted one last fall in DeKalb County, Ga., in which a school receptionist talked down a gunman. There's also "every indication" that Dawn Hochsprung, the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School, tried to confront gunman Adam Lanza before he killed 20 students and six staffers, including Hochsprung, in December 2012.

School safety consultant Ken Trump also noted that a Sparks, Nev., teacher who was a military veteran approached a shooter last October and was killed.

Trump said deciding whether to confront a school shooter ultimately is an individual, personal decision. "There is a big difference between an individual teacher making a split-second decision on confronting a shooter versus the schools, as an organization, teaching that tactic and making it school policy."

Canady said trained and armed officers have stopped shootings, such as the one at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo., in December. "The key to effectively dealing with the situations is to have a good plan and to practice the plan."